This guide walks through the full agency transition process: pre-switch preparation, securing your data, the handoff timeline, onboarding the new agency, avoiding the performance dip, and what to expect in the first 90 days.
1. Pre-Switch: What to Do Before You Give Notice
Do not tell your current agency you are leaving until you have a plan. The transition period is when things are most likely to go wrong, and preparation makes the difference between a smooth handoff and a performance crater.
Verify account ownership. Log into Google Ads, Meta Business Manager, Google Analytics, and any other platforms your agency uses. Confirm that you (or your company email) are listed as the admin or owner. If the agency set up accounts under their own credentials, request ownership transfer before giving notice.
Document current performance. Pull the last 6-12 months of data: campaign-level metrics, search term reports, audience lists, conversion data. You want this baseline to measure the new agency against. Do not rely on the old agency to provide this after you fire them.
Select the new agency first. Start talking to potential replacements 4-6 weeks before you plan to make the switch. Use the questions from our agency selection guide to evaluate candidates.
2. Secure Your Data and Assets
This is the most critical step. Export everything you might need before the relationship ends.
- Campaign structures: Download or screenshot your campaign hierarchy, ad groups, keywords, and ads
- Negative keyword lists: These took months to build and are often the most valuable asset your agency created
- Audience lists: Remarketing lists, customer match lists, lookalike audiences
- Conversion tracking setup: Document what is tracked, how, and which conversion actions are primary vs secondary
- Historical reports: At least 12 months of monthly performance data
- Scripts and automations: Any custom scripts running in the account
All of these assets belong to you. If your agency pushes back on sharing them, that is a red flag about the relationship and a reason to leave sooner rather than later.
3. The Ideal Transition Timeline
The best transitions have overlap. Here is a timeline that works for most brands.
Week 1-2: New agency audits current account. Before they change anything, the new agency needs to understand what is working and what is not. A good new agency will run their own audit and present findings before touching the campaigns.
Week 2-3: Give notice to old agency. Most contracts require 30 days notice. During this period, ask the old agency to continue managing normally. Do not tell them who the replacement is (it can create tension and sloppy handoffs).
Week 3-4: New agency creates transition plan. Based on their audit, they build a plan for what to keep, what to change, and what to rebuild. This plan should be shared with you for approval before any changes go live.
Week 4-5: Access transfer and go-live. Remove the old agency's access, grant access to the new agency, and begin the first phase of changes. Start conservative. Do not restructure everything on day one.
4. Onboarding the New Agency
Set the new agency up for success by giving them context the old agency had (or should have had). Prepare a brief that covers: your business model, margins by product category, seasonal trends, top-performing products, customer segments, and your primary KPIs.
Also share what frustrated you about the old agency. If reporting was the problem, tell them exactly what you expect. If lack of testing was the issue, set a clear testing cadence from day one. The new agency should learn from the old relationship, not repeat it.
5. Avoiding the Performance Dip
Some performance dip during a transition is normal. The new agency is learning your account, and any structural changes reset Google's algorithm to some degree. But you can minimize it.
Do not change everything at once. The new agency should make changes in phases: fix tracking first, then restructure campaigns, then test new creative. Changing everything simultaneously makes it impossible to diagnose problems.
Keep what works. If certain campaigns are performing well, leave them alone initially. The new agency can improve them later, but disrupting winners during a transition is unnecessary risk.
Set realistic expectations. Expect a 10-20% dip in performance during weeks 2-4 of the transition. If the new agency is good, performance should recover and then exceed the old baseline by month three.
6. What to Expect in the First 90 Days
Month 1: Audit and stabilize. The new agency learns your account, fixes urgent issues (tracking, wasted spend, obvious structural problems), and establishes a reporting baseline. Performance may dip slightly.
Month 2: Restructure and test. Campaign restructuring based on the audit findings. First round of ad copy and audience tests. Performance should start recovering to pre-transition levels.
Month 3: Build momentum. Testing results inform the strategy. New campaigns or expanded targeting based on what is working. Performance should be meeting or exceeding the old agency's results.
If you are not seeing improvement by the end of month three, have a direct conversation. The new agency should be able to explain what they have done, what they have learned, and what their plan is for month four. If they cannot, you may have made the wrong choice. But do not panic too early. Transitions take time.
Frequently Asked Questions
Plan for 4-6 weeks from the time you select a new agency to full transition. This includes the audit period, notice period with the old agency, and initial onboarding with the new one. Rushing it increases the risk of performance loss.
Partially. If the new agency restructures campaigns or changes bid strategies, those campaigns will enter a learning phase. But historical data in the account is not lost. A smart transition preserves high-performing campaigns and makes changes gradually.
No. Pausing campaigns loses momentum and resets learning data. The transition should be seamless, with the new agency taking over management while campaigns continue running. Only pause campaigns if there is a specific, data-backed reason.
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